GREATER HICKORY METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION (MPO) FUNCTIONS

The Greater Hickory Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is responsible for carrying out the areawide transportation planning process in the Hickory Urban Area. The MPO is an organization consisting of boards of general purpose local governments that include City, Town and Village Councils and County Boards of Commissioners; the North Carolina Department of Transportation; a Transportation Advisory Board; Technical Coordinating Committee; and various agencies and units of local and state government participating in transportation planning for the area. The Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG) is designated as the Lead Planning Agency (LPA) and has primary responsibility for annual preparation of the Planning Work Program (PWP) and Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP). The WPCOG is the primary local recipient of planning funds received from the US Department of Transportation for the Hickory Urban Area.

In 2002 the Hickory Newton-Conover MPO Planning Boundary expanded significantly due to the growth of the Hickory Urban Area which was identified by the 2000 Census. The Hickory Urban Area expanded from a population of 69,914 to 187,808 and the MPO Planning Boundary increased its population from 127,322 to 257,572. The new urbanized area included significant portions of all four counties and all municipalities with the exception of Taylorsville, Maiden, Catawba, and Cedar Rock. The MPO boards voted to invite Maiden, Catawba, and Cedar Rock to join the MPO. Even though they are outside the urbanized area, they are in an area with potential to urbanize in the next 20 years. Taylorsville was only municipality in the four counties that was not included in the planning boundary because it was not anticipated to reach the level needed for urbanization in the next 20 years.

After inviting Maiden, Catawba and Cedar Rock to join the MPO, the Planning Boundary increased from 11 local governments to 27. Because of this growth the name of the MPO was changed to the Unifour MPO to reflect the region and to correspond to the newly formed Unifour Rural Planning Organization (URPO).